Spinalcore

My mom got me using good old sea salt years ago for her tanks when she needed to do a thourough clean.

Technically all betta splendens are Hybrids of one sort or another. The original bettas that the splendens came from were more like a plaket or an imbellis. The Splendens and the Imbellis are basically the same fish just one is more peaceful than the other. They are both from the same genes just that the Splendens were breed by man through selective breeding to get the Brighter colors and longer fins. Sort of like the long fin danios and Fancy Goldfish. There are so many different trypes of Splendens due to the various betta species that were cross breed over 100s of years. Some of the strains have only been around for a handfull of years tho. But most if not all splendens have been inbred so much that they now have weak immunity systems and are extremely susceptable to desease. I am trying to find the appropriate wild caught species but the splendens seem to only be a captive bred species, which helps to suport my point about the original crossbreeding to get the species.

IMHO Veils are a good type to start with due to the price of them compared to the others. It would hurt your wallet alot less trying them before the fancier ones due to the aggression factor and the possible loss of or both of them.

I am currently trying to breed Crowns and want to get some halfmoons to start trying to start my Halfsun line. (Halfmoon and Crown Cross)

(Yes I have been trying to do alot of research on them for my own personal reasons.) For more Information on the History of the betta you can read the following Thread. http://s6.invisionfree.com/AlbertaAquatica...p?showtopic=732

I so love all of your bettas.

Great Pics Chris.

I also like the OBs they are a nice looking fish in my books.

I figured you would Chris before even thinking about posting about the Idea. Your even crazier about bettas than I am. LOL And I love mine and your :drool: bettas. If everyone had a chance to see yours :bow: then I am sure that we would have more people wanting bettas for sure. IMHO.

Are you still thinking about trying to breed your bettas? If so I can send you a bunch of info that I have on it to try to help you out.

Update on Spawn 1:

The male from the spawn had died on me 2 days ago while I was at work. There are no signs of any thing wrong and I had just done a 25% water change a couple of days before. The female is still doing fine at the moment tho. (I had lost a female that I picked up at walmart the same day as he died but they were in seperate tanks she was alone. Then the next day my cambodian CT female and Opaque VT male died while I was at work.)

Update on Spawn 5:

I have 6 Survivors at this point they are still around the same size as guppy juvies and in a 2.5 gallon tank by themselves now. They seem to be doing really well and are now around 2 months old. Most of them are starting to get their coloring instead of being Transparent now. Their lines have been coming out for about a week now. 3/8th of an inch in size at this time.

Spawn 6 should be getting attempted in about 2-3 weeks.

More updates to come. (for you Smokey.) :beer: (I'm trying to really spark some more interest in Bettas and Gouramis. I'm not too sure how it is working tho.lol)

I am planning on try to breed some halfsun bettas during the winter They are a cross of HM and CT. They have the 180 degree tail fin with the CT rays extending past the edge of the fin. I will figure out prices once I have them being produced. Which will probably make them ready for around the spring or summer next year after I grow them out enough to be able to see what they look like. I will see how much the shops would give me for them and then I will charge around the same as I would get selling them to the shop. the really nice ones might sell for alittle more. At the moment I'm thinking that it might be around $15.00 each or a pair for $25 but we will see when the time comes how much they will be.

I am just curious to see how many people would be interested in them at the moment and will go from there.

I am debating about wether I Should do a plexi-glass interior or real thin Glass interior instead of using the epoxy on the interior at the moment. I am hoping to start building the first one over the next couple of monthe for a winter project. I need to try to keep extremely busy right now to keep my mind off of some personal problems and am trying to avoid the things that I used to do when I was having some serious problems that I couldn't solve. Any Ideas on various different aquarium equipment projects that shouldn't cost too much to assemble are welcome. I am looking to get a bunch of glass to build a few aquariums most of which will probably be sold for a minimal cost just to cover the materials.

We are mainly looking at going through them for the Pond Liner, underlay, and Misc equipment for the pond next spring.

Pondliner $0.69 per Square foot.

Underlay $0.22 per Square foot.

I normally just try to find anything that I am looking for here in the city. The pond stuff just works out to be cheaper than trying to find good prices on the sizes that we are looking for.

The pond is more than likely going to be 9'x6'x4'deep if not larger. My mom wants to do it up so that it is deep enough to leave her goldfish in it over the winter like in Asia.

Her is a Canadian Site for everyone to check the prices at

Payment methods accepted :

$CAN : American Express, MasterCard, Visa

How to Contact us :

Customer Service

Phone: Toll Free 1 877 PET PET PET (1 877 738-7387)

Fax: (705)329-1069

Web site: www.petsandponds.com

Email: mail@petsandponds.com

Postal address :

PO BOX 21014

575 West Street South #1

Orillia (Ontario)

Canada

L3V 7N6

I haven't tried ordering anything from them yet but am planning on trying a large pond equipment order in the spring. They sell Aquarium, Pond, Reptile, Bird and small animal supplies.

Example price

"Ebo Jager 250 Watt 15.5" Heater $CAN 37.49

Updates to my list:

All of the ones from my last update plus the following

9: 1 Opaque VT Male

10: 1 Red/Violet VT Male

11: 1 White with a violet tint body cambodian Female

Plus 7 or 8 fry that are just over 7 weeks old.

Chris you still have me beat by a long shot. 58 now isn't it?

I have to agree with rahim. This isn't supposed to be board for people to try to start fights. It is meant for people that share the same interests and to help one another when needed if possible. I know that I am running into a problem with trying to get some decent pictures of my fish as I only have a webcam and a poor quality digital. Not everyone has a digital cam to use.

Common Name: Betta or Siamese Fighting Fish.

Scientific Name: Betta splendens.

Family: Belontiidae.

Distribution: Thailand, Malaysia, South East Asia.

Length: Males, 2.75 inches, females two inches.

Diet: Omniverous – a wide range of live foods, flakes, and small pellets are accepted.

Water requirements: Temperature: 75 to 80 degrees. Temperature is perhaps the biggest factor in thriving bettas, as they are accustomed to warm waters with low oxygen. Bettas possess a labyrinth organ that requires them to have access to water surface for their oxygen requirements. Hardness: Soft to medium-hard. pH: 6.0 to 8.0.

Lifespan: Two to three years is the expected lifespan of an average Betta.

Sexing: The most obvious ways to sex Bettas is by their fins and colouration. Fully grown males have very long fins as opposed to their female counterparts, whose fins are two to four times shorter than the male’s. Colouration for a male betta is usually far more brilliant in intensity than the females, which tend to be a bit more dull. Males’ bodies are much longer and thinner than the female’s. The female has an egg spot, and the male doesn’t. This is a speck that appears on the female's underside, between the ventral and anal fins. The males have a bigger membrane under their necks that is sometimes displayed during times of aggression and mating. Males flare and display at each other and show signs of aggression for one another. Females do not have this behaviour. Males will blow a bubble nest, and females do not.

Breeding: Bettas are a bubble-nester; keep multiple females for one male. Bettas will breed easily if kept in appropriate living conditions. The male wraps himself tightly around the female while she expels the eggs. He then scoops them up in his mouth and spits them into the bubble nest for further development. He then becomes the guard of the eggs and the caretaker of the fry. After egg fertilization, it is wise to remove the female and put her in her own tank because the male will become aggressive as he tends to the eggs and and the fry.

Description: Various colors, mostly shades of red or blue, but many color variations have been seen on the market in recent years. The males have long, flowing fins while the female displays much shorter ones, and in more pastel colors. The male betta is known for its fighting qualities and will exhibit aggressive behaviour with other males until one or the other either backs down to submissive position or is injured.

Behavior: Male bettas will fight other male bettas, a female he wants to spawn with, or even his reflection in a mirror. He spreads his fins out like wings and is known to dive at other fish into submission. He will nip the fins of other long-finned fish , but otherwise can be kept in most community tanks under peaceful conditions as long as there is only one male to several females. Females are far more tolerant and rarely display any aggressive behaviour.

Tank level: Bettas enjoy the middle to top levels of the aquarium.

Ease of keeping: Easy to intermediate, everyone should try at least one.

Here is a link to a page with my plans on how to build my 260 gallon Plywood Tank:

http://members.shaw.ca/Spinalcore/260_gall...lywood_tank.htm

I am thinking of going for the following fish for my large tank once I get it built:

Labidochromis caeruleus (Yellow)

Metriaclima estherae (Red/Oranage)

Pseudotropheus socolofi albino (White)

Now I am just tring to figure out a blue species that I don't need to worry about inter-species breeding with. I am looking more toward another mbuna species but I may be able to go for a Blue Peacock species instead. Any suggestions would be welcome. I am looking for a common species only tho

Thank you for any help you can supply.

This is what I have about Angelfish:

Ideal Water Quality

Soft (0.6 to 1.2 dH), slightly acid (pH 6.5 to 6.9), successful breedings have occurred in pH 6.8.

Live plants should be included in all freshwater tanks. Water quality is monitored by live plants as they will look sickly before the fish die, they aid in keeping water clear, hinder growth of algae and add Oxygen to the water.

Hunger Strike

Loss of appetite and eventual refusal to eat should not be a problem in a well maintained tank. As long as regular partial water changes are made and the general guidelines for cleanliness are followed, this should never happen to you.

In case you notice your angelfish going "off their feed", bribe them with live brine shrimp, live guppy fry or any other clean live food. In no time they will be eating again.

Here is a link to a file of Here is a link to the Nutrafin Aquatic News Vol. 3 Angelfish Magazine

I hope that this information helps with the problem. I'm not very experienced with angelfish all of my knowledge is just fresh research as I have only been taking care of my mom's for her since she bought them about 3 weeks ago. But the information I posted is what I have read. I have a copy of the magazine that I posted a link to the electronic version and I refer to it for my general information on Tank and Species information.

Please keep us updated on the status of these angels.

This is from http://www.thekrib.com/Fish/ameca-splendens.html

Get a *real* algae eater, Ameca splendens, a smallish (platy sized)

very hardy fish that eats hair algae, green spot algae and (get this

net.sufferers,) blue-green algae.

I put a colony of 6 into a 20L that had the surface covered in

thick, robust green hair algae. The algae was threatening to engulf

the few killies and the hornwort I had in there. Result? 1 month

later, absolutely no algae in the tank, *no duckweed* (they eat that

too) but a 20L *filled* with hornwort - imagine a hornwort ball

30" long, 1 ft. high, 1ft deep and you'll be on target. The

tank is very brightly lit with a shoplite with a 4' vitalite (hornwort

seems to like that as well) and an agro-light.

The splendens, not a really glamorous fish, is a goodeid, so its a livebearer

with funny reproductive geometry that gives birth to few, but larger

(1/3-1/2" long) young. Any fish that'll eat blue-green algae has a place

in my fishroom.

: 

: You have a very similar setup to mine (38 gal, lots of valisneria

: and amazon swords), and a similar situation:  LOTS of green hair

: algae.  I added a Chinese Algae Eater and two black mollies.

: 10 days later I come back from vacation to find a tank *completely*

: overgrown w/ algae.  I added 4 more mollies and two Pl*costomus.

: They (the pl*cos did most of the work) cleaned up the tank completely

: within 3 weeks.  I don't even have to clean the glass anymore.

: 

: Add another small pl*co, and get some black mollies.

I wouldn't do that; chinese algae eaters are more trouble than they're

worth, and the water conditions described are too soft and acidic for

thriving black mollies. Find the splendens, you'll be much better off.

Or, clean the algae by hand, if you only have 1 tank to worry about,

its not a big imposition. Lower the fish load, too.

Matt

I would talk to ABWildrose about a few Amecas as she has some that are already "taking over her tank". Here is a link to her post last month about them.

http://s6.invisionfree.com/AlbertaAquatica...owtopic=614&hl=

I don't know if she has any left to part with right at the moment but they are a lovely species. She brought me a trio up last month and 1 week after they got here one of the females droped 14 fry and they are about the same size as a 3 month old Swordtail when they are born. I keep them in a 15 with 1 ram and a few swordtails at the moment. They don't even seem to try to eat their offspring. The fry are large enough that none of the other fish in the tank seem to be able to eat them as well. They are also extinct in the wild from what I have found through my research of them.

I am using this as a chance to preserve at least 1 species from extinction.

By the way just for your information on the SAE It would fall under the Cyprinids along with Sharks, Barbs, Danios & Rasboras.

Here is what I have for info on how to cure Velvet:

First I would say try a salt bath.

When Velvet Disease has been confirmed, raise the water temperature of the the tank. If possible the temperature should be brought up to 88-93F (31-34C). Turn off the lights and treat the fish with copper sulfate, Trypaflavine, Methylene blue, a malachite green-formalin combination, or Quinine Hydrochloride.

I will email you a pdf file that has info on different diseases and their cures.

I think that you are running a little low on Bettas Chris. or mabe just jars.

Curently Breeding (or trying to):

Betta Splendens (Trying with varying progress)

Fancy Guppies (Trying to get my own color strain developed)

Feeder Guppies (Building up heathy stock)

Swordtails (Starting)

Zebra Danios (Trying)

Black Convicts (Wigglers at the moment)

That is the duckweed isn't it?

I love that Gourami pic.

Thanks I got most of the information from various web sites and figured that I would share the information that I have learned about them. The order of the species that I have been researching is:

Bettas

Danios

Swordtails

Chinese Algae Eaters

Guppies

Endler's

Platies

Mollies

Various Mbuna

Various Peacocks

Venestus

Convicts

Ocellotus

Julidochromis Ornatus

Angelfish

Goldfish

Ameca Splendens

Khuli Loaches

Sparkling Gouramis

Various other Gouramis

Rams

Various Tetras

I try to do enough research on every kind of fish that I see and would like to get sometime soon then I decide whether or not I will get them. I hate getting fish at the store with knowing nothing about them. It leads you to housing them in unappropriate quarters.

We could always try a general Profile section where people can do up a profile for fish they know about and post it in a profile forum that way you just have 1 section that has all of the profiles together.

Did he manage to eat for you yet?